OVERVIEW: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is a major funder with broad grantmaking programs straddling many issue areas, including climate and conservation, reproductive healthcare and abortion rights, infant, maternal, and child health, education, sustainable agriculture and food systems globally, civil society, and local grantmaking in California.
IP TAKE: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, with over $8 billion in assets and hundreds of millions in annual grantmaking, is one of the largest U.S. philanthropies. Across issue areas, its overarching mission is to build just and equitable societies, protect and restore the natural world, and invest in families and communities. In recent years, the foundation has stood out in particular for its support of abortion rights, maternal healthcare, science education, and ocean conservation.
This is an accessible funder for grantseekers, with a grant inquiry form available online for most of its core funding areas. However, the website notes that only 1% of annual grantmaking derives from unsolicited proposals, and only 15% goes to first-time grantees. Grantseekers are encouraged to carefully peruse past grants for each issue area via Packard’s detailed grants database. According to past grantee reviews, the Packard Foundation is “supportive” and “accessible.” This foundation is also unusually transparent, with detailed financials and information about its operations posted at its well-organized website. Potential grantees can also send an email to the appropriate program officer. All told, while this is a longshot for new grantees, particularly smaller organizations, Packard is an important funder to know about for nonprofits working within its areas of giving
PROFILE: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation was established in 1964 and is based in Los Altos, California. David Packard, who died in 1996, was the co-founder of the Hewlett-Packard technology company and a former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense. Lucile, who passed 1987, was instrumental in the management of Hewlett-Packard in its earliest years and oversaw much of the family’s philanthropy. During their lives, the Packards were instrumental in the establishment of Palo Alto’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and the Monterey Bay Aquarium and affiliated Research Institute, all three of which continue to receive support from the foundation. The Packards are signatories of the Climate Funders Justice Pledge.
Today, the Packard Foundation’s mission is to “work with people and communities to create enduring solutions for just societies and a healthy, resilient natural world.” Packard’s grantmaking supports and invests in:
Packard further names several intersecting approaches to how it makes grants.
Grants for the Environment and Science
Packard makes grants for the environment and the sciences through several programs — many of which intersect themes and interests. One major threadline across several programs here is a dedication to mitigation climate change across several fronts — from deforestation to science research.
Grants for Climate Change and Clean Energy
Climate change is currently this funder’s largest giving concern. Packard conducts related giving through several initiatives and programs outlined below:
Packard makes related grants through the Innovations in Climate Change Initiative, which works to support “outstanding climate leaders around the world” with “resources to design their own bold strategies to address the climate challenge.” Key to this work is Climate Breakthrough, which “provides unrestricted funding to outstanding problem solvers from around the world.” IP has previously spotlight Climate Breakthrough, which you can read more about here.
Global Climate Initiative, which works to connect “funders and civil society organizations to end tropical deforestation.” Related work here, occurring in partnership with the Climate and Land Use Alliance and other donors, supports a related initiative called Forests, People, Climate that “partners with funders and civil society organizations to end and reverse tropical deforestation while delivering on sustainable development.”
Through Packard’s Science program, individual scientists and organizations can receive grants to further “research and science-based innovations that can have an impact on the Foundation’s ocean, climate, and land work.”
Additionally, along with the William and Flora Hewlett, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, and Rockefeller foundations, and Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy, Packard heads a fund called Invest in Our Future that works to ensure that local groups and organizations benefit from the opportunities created by three recent federal bills: the Inflation Reduction Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the CHIPS and Science Act.
Other grantees receiving grants of over $1 million in recent years include the United States Energy Foundation and the Climateworks Foundation. The foundation has also given to the Carbon Disclosure Project, the European Climate Foundation and Climate Advisors, Inc.
Grants for Sustainable Agriculture, Marine and Environmental Conservation
The Packard Foundation supports the conservation of land and water through Forests for People and Climate, Ocean and Agriculture, Livelihoods, and Conservation. While both may overlap to some degree with Packard’s giving for climate change, these initiatives are distinct and provide opportunities that intersect with conservation and marine conservation.
The Forest for People and Climate initiative works to connect “funders and civil society organizations to end tropical deforestation.” The foundation participates in collaborative philanthropic efforts including the Climate and Land Use Alliance and Forests, People Climate which work to protect and reverse deforestation as a means of decreasing carbon emissions and limiting global warming over the coming decades.
Packard’s Ocean initiative works to “protect and restore marine biodiversity, achieve equitable and sustainable fisheries, end illegal fishing, and harness ocean-based climate solutions.” Most recently, this work has focused on Chile, China, the U.S., and Indonesia. Packard likes to back Indigenous-led work in these giving areas, as well.
Agriculture, Livelihoods, and Conservation invests in “leaders and organizations supporting smallholder farmers in the tropical forests of Ethiopia and Indonesia, with special attention to the role of women, Indigenous communities, and young people.” Packard’s grantee partners “protect forests and biodiversity while ensuring that people who rely on them can thrive by supporting sustainable smallholder agriculture.”
Grants for Science Research and STEM Higher Education
Support for scientific research stems mainly from Packard’s Science funding program. The foundation’s approach here is three-pronged:
Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering provide unrestricted funding to “early-career professors” at 50 participating universities in the U.S. and abroad. Fellows are generally nominated by university presidents and hail from disciplines including but not limited to mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, engineering and geosciences. Grants are awarded in the amount of $875,000 and distributed over a period of five years.
For information about past fellows and participating universities, see the fellowship directory.
The foundation is the principal funder of the Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, which was founded by David Packard in 1987.
Other grantmaking supports “scientific assessments, research, and the connection of science and scientific thinking to decision-makers.” Areas of focus for these grants include:
Research that elucidates and works toward Packard’s stated conservation goals;
Research and/or innovations that relate directly to and may have an impact on the foundation’s environmental and climate change work;
Education, outreach, advocacy and policy that is science-based and and exemplary of “the value and integrity of science in decision-making, and the value of scientific research to society.”
The Packard Foundation notes that this approach is “in transition” with regard to its specific goals and interests. Grantseekers should check back periodically for updates. Past grantees include Goodwin Simon Strategic Research, the Hainan Zhiyu Sustainability Science and Technology Development Research Center and the the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.
Grants for Health, Women and Girls, Early Childhood Education and Economic Development
Packard makes grants for health through its Children, Families and Communities program, as well as its Reproductive Health initiative. Packard funds an array of intersecting issues through these two focus areas.
The Children, Families and Communities program names early learning, children’s health, and paid family leave as funding priorities. These areas of funding tend to focus on U.S.-based organizations.
The Packard foundation approaches this work through strategies that include scaling successful programs and practices, supporting local leadership and developing quality community-based systems.
The initiative also supports research, advocacy and policy development towards its goals in these areas.
Previous grantees include organizations that have conducted research and developed policy on equitable children’s healthcare at the state and national levels.
Grantees include the National Health Law Program, Utah Children, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and NC Child.
Grantmaking for Reproductive Health is global in scope and “is committed to promoting reproductive health and rights, with a focus on high quality information and services.”
Areas of focus include sexuality education, contraception and abortion care, developing reproductive care infrastructure and norms and research and advocacy working toward reproductive justice around the world.
Recent geographic priorities include the U.S., sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
In the U.S., the foundation has recently made grants to the National Abortion Federation, the Women’s Foundation of Mississippi and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, among others.
Global grantees include the African Population and Health Research Centre, the Ethiopian Center for Disability ad Development Association and Pathfinder International’s Promoting Change in Reproductive Behavior of Adolescents program in India.
Grants for Global Development and Sustainable Agriculture
The Packard Foundation currently runs global grantmaking programs for Agriculture, Livelihoods and Conservation, which you can read more about above under the Climate and Science section, and Civil Society and Leadership.
Packard’s Civil Society and Leadership aims to “support leaders, organizations, and movements to achieve their missions and work towards collective change while fostering a thriving civil society.”
This grantmaking overlaps with Packard’s work in the areas of reproductive health, environmental conservation and climate change.
Grantmaking has prioritized inclusive organizations, collaborations and the promotion of civic engagement around the world.
Recently, grants have gone to the Conversation Indonesia Foundation, the Turkish Philanthropy Fund; Mexico’s Proyecto de Derechos Economicos, Socialies y Culturales; the International Center for Not for Profit Law and the Alliance for Open Society International.
Grants for California
The Packard Foundation runs local grantmaking programs for San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey counties in California. Grantmaking aims to “create communities where everyone has access to the resources and services they need to be strong, resilient, and have opportunities to explore, grow and thrive.”
Areas of interest include arts and arts education, the environment, civic engagement, housing, food banks and basic needs and youth and afterschool programs.
Recent grantees include the Museum of Art and History at the McPherson Center, the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County, Catholic Charities of Santa Clara county and the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula.
Important Grant Details:
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s grants range widely from about $10,000 to several million. This funder supports a wide array of organizations, ranging from well-recognized global entities to local grassroots groups working in areas of interest.
The Packard Foundation maintains a searchable database of its past grantees that dates back to 2015. Its website also features a insights page that describes the foundation’s recent work.
The Packard Foundation encourages grantseekers whose work aligns with its goals to complete its grant inquiry form or send a brief project description to the appropriate program officer.
Packard will not review unsolicited full proposals. About 15% of the Packard Foundation’s annual grantmaking is awarded to new grantees.
The foundation also makes grants for the communities of San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey counties in California.
For additional information see the foundation’s FAQ and grantseekers pages. General inquiries may be made via the foundation’s contact page.
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